The Jury

Mr. Prahlad Kakar

Advertising and Branding Guru

Prahlad Kakar founded Genesis Film Production Pvt. Ltd. in 1977 and virtually re invented
regional television advertising, after having assisted Shyam Benegal, one of India’s most
renowned filmmakers. In 2011, he co founded, India SME Forum, as a premier Institution for
Small and Medium enterprises.
In 1999, He was one of the few Indian Directors to direct international commercials for clients
like Unilever and Pepsico in Burma, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Asia Pacific
Region. Prahlad has won several awards for technical excellence, Innovation and creativity in
advertising over the years in India. In 2000 he received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement
Award from IAAFA for his contribution to Advertising and Film Art.
He took on the initiative of reviving the culture of tea in India with a touch of sophistication, a
venture which culminated in the Tea Centre, a restaurant designed by him at Churchgate, in
association with the Tea Board of India. In 1985, he started a Gourmet Restaurant at the Prithvi
Theater, Bombay with Jennifer Kendal Kapoor. In 2001, he started Casa Amore, an exclusive
wine bar and restaurant. Prahlad has also created Papa Pancho with designer Mamta Sekhri. It
is one of the few places in Mumbai that offers traditional, home-cooked Punjabi food. “Sarson
da Saaga", Bombay's first " Slow food, Punjabi- home style cooking" was also opened by him at
IMAX in March 2002.
Prahlad also runs 'Lacadives', India's premier scuba-diving school, along with his wife Mitali
Kakar at Kadmat Island, in collaboration with the Govt. of Lakshadweep.

Dr. J. S. Juneja

Former Chairman & CEO, National Small Industries Corporation

Dr. Juneja has been the former Chairman and CEO of the National Small Industries Corporation. Dr. Juneja has a unique experience in the public & private sector managements and has worked for SME development, policy formulation & advocacy, institutional capacity building & restructuring and entrepreneurship development for over three decades.
Promoting investments and joint ventures from India to Mauritius and Botswana, Dr. Juneja has served as a Advisor & Consultant to the Governments of Egypt, UAE (Dubai), Kenya, Sri Lanka and several other countries of Asia & Africa, United Nations organizations, Commonwealth Secretariat etc.
He has also served as the Past President of All India Management Association.
An MBA from the University of Oregon, USA, Dr. Juneja was conferred Doctoral Degree by the University of Bombay in Applied Economics (1989). He has been a Visiting Professor to the University of Rhode Island, USA and Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
Dr. J.S Juneja has been actively promoting investments to a number of countries particularly in Africa, while facilitating FDIs, joint ventures and technology transfer and has assisted in setting up more than 300 small manufacturing enterprises in Asia and Africa.

Mr. Tilak Raj Bajalia

Former Deputy Managing Director, Small Industries Development Bank of India

Prior to appointment as DMD in 2013 in SIDBI, Mr. Bajalia was the Executive Director of IDBI Bank and also served on the board of SIDBI as IDBI's nominee Director since 2009
He started his banking career in 1974 at Bank of India and joined IDBI in 1983. During his 38 year tenure in India's foremost development funding institution, IDBI Bank, he played a significant role in
the formation of the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) vertical in IDBI in 2008 and has handled varied portfolios including corporate and retail finance, recovery and NPA management, restructuring
and human resource management. In corporate banking he has handled infra projects, paper, textile, engineering, mining industry.
Mr. Bajalia He is a Member of Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. Mr. Bajalia holds a Bachelor Degree in Arts from CAIIB and is a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers.
He served as a Member of the Committee constituted by Reserve Bank of India for restructuring of cases with exposure less than Rs.100 million.

Mr. Sunil Alagh

Former MD & CEO, Britannia

Sunil Alagh is the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Britannia Industries, an Indian food products corporation.
Alagh is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He joined Britannia in December 1974 from Jagatjit Industries, where he was
product manager (marketing services). He is credited with Britannia's rise to being India's largest biscuit company.
It was under his stewardship that Britannia became the No. 1 Food Brand in India in 2002 and figured in the Forbes Magazine
List of 300 Best Small Companies in the World for three years- 1999, 2000 and 2002. It was the only food brand from India
on the list. His work spans a period of 40 years, across three countries (Malaysia, India and Indonesia) and four industries
– FMCG, private equity, pharma and corporate security.
A recognised thought provocateur, Sunil Alagh, enables teams to realise their full potential and run successful businesses.
Building brands and sustaining a profitable business is now second nature to him. After his successful stint at Britannia
Industries, Sunil Alagh began to lead a small and effective team at SKA Advisors in 2003. His work now, is centered around
creating strategic business and marketing plans for Challenger Brands operating in competitive environments. In 2010, Sunil
Alagh oversaw the successful execution of the development of Horlicks as a Challenger Brand in biscuits. For someone who had
launched Britannia Tiger and contemporarised the Britannia brand, it was a sense of deja vu.

Mr. Vinod Kumar

Starting his career in international collaborations and projects, in 1989, saw Vinod at the nerve centre of various successful Joint Ventures and Colllaborations in Electronics & Telecom, Media & Publishing, Industrial & Consumer Electronics, Hospitality and Finance, with Multinational corporations entering India through the FDI route.
In his corporate honcho avataar, Vinod, continued to helm important and visionary new ventures and projects including the first email service in India and went on to launch Microsoft first exclusive distribution in India, followed by SUN & IBM certified IT Training with a network of over 140 centres across India, training over 1,25,000 engineers in IT in the next four years.
Vinod, led a Big 4, IT Consulting organisation in India, setting up its wholly owned subsidiary in the US, after securing venture alliances with Baan, Lotus IBM, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the XML World Group and executed multi million contracts for Texaco, DST Systems and other large corporations throughout the world, before overseeing the buyout of the company by a US based corporation, in an all cash deal. Vinod went to lead the development & successful sale of an indigenously developed navigation and geographic information system, based tracking patent and business.
As the Managing Partner for India and Middle East at Sustainable Development Resources Consortium International, he presently invests in profitable, innovative, Small and Medium Companies. Vinod leads the SDRC team in Risk Profiling, Assessing Growth Potential and deciding on Investment for Seed and Venture Financing to MSMEs in innovative and disruptive technologies,

Dr. J. P. Singh

President & Head-SME business Axis Bank

Dr. J.P.Singh, President & Head-SME business at Axis Bank ,earlier a career banker and who has a rich experience in Indian banking sector of approx. 30 years began his career in 1986 with State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur as a Probationary Officer and moved to Axis Bank (then UTI Bank Ltd.) in March, 1995 as Manager. From 1995 to 2010, Mr. Singh has worked in Axis Bank branches across various geographies, the last being New Delhi Main Branch as Branch Head Before moving to Central Office in 2012 as Head- Business Banking he was Circle Head of Delhi Circle from 2010 to 2012. He is a Science graduate from Kanpur University and holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from FMS, Delhi University, Delhi. Currently Mr.Singh is on the Board of Indian Highway Management Co. Ltd. (IHMCL), a subsidiary of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI),Govt. of India.

Mr. Ajay Thakur

Head, BSE SME

Ajay is a professional with more than two decades of experience in capital markets.
He joined BSE Ltd in December, 1996 as Head – Arbitration and Business Development. He has developed the derivatives
segment of BSE Ltd and also actively involved in opening of regional centers across the country. Presently as Head -
BSE SME, responsible for the development of this segment of BSE Ltd. He very successfully launched the SME Platform
on 13th and thus BSE Ltd became the first Exchange to launch the Platform. Today BSE Ltd is the market leader in this
segment with 92% market share. Within a few years this platform has 300 companies listed and another 100+ companies are
to be listed. The success of this platform has brought a lot of enthusiasm in the market and more and more companies and
market intermediaries are coming forward to get the companies listed on this platform.

Mr. Ravinder Bhan

Business Leader and Consultant

Internationally experienced Business Leader and Consultant having contributed to Growth and Value at businesses from India, Europe and Middle East, For over two decades, Ravinder, contributed at several companies in the region to grow and deliver real business results year after year. This included small, medium and large organization spread over 25 years, be it big giants like Crompton Greaves, Larsen & Toubro, Schneider or GE; medium sized manufacturers like Jyoti Ltd. Voltamp Switchgear, or small organizations like Delta Engineering, Uptime Engineers, High Volt Electricals & Hirect Engg.
Extensively experienced in Strategic Marketing, Change Management, Human Capital, Finance, Supply Chain, Project Management and Manufacturing processes, Ravinder is an Effective Team Builder, Trainer and mentor with a passion to bring out the best out of People. A top level professional net-worker-linked personally with over a thousand top notch professionals from across the globe.
Aggressive Initiative leader for making quick, visible and yet seamless transformation from'business as usual'to "businesses that matter" even in a Not for Profit Organization/ Industry Association bringing enhanced value to all stake holders.

Mr. Hemendra Mathur

Venture PartnerBharat Innovation Fund

Hemendra Mathur is a Venture Partner at Bharat Innovation Fund. He has about 18 years of experience in private equity, management consulting, investment banking and private equity. Prior to his working at SEAF, Hemendra has worked with Yes Bank, Rabo India Finance (a 100 percent subsidiary of Rabobank International), KSA Technopak, and ORG MARG (now part of The Nielsen Company). He also is closely associated with many incubation, mentoring and angel networks.
Hemendra has over 23 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, management consulting and investment banking industry in India, South Asia, Europe and USA., with about 10 years of experience in early-stage and growth capital investing.
Hemendra has raised a private equity fund earlier and managed a portfolio of mid- sized companies in the food supply chain and has 12 years of management consulting and investment banking experience in the food, agribusiness, retail and consumer goods industry for corporates as well as the Government of India / state governments.

Mr. Nitin Wali

Regional Director at Neustar, Inc.

Extremely passionate about creating meaningful impact on businesses through technology, Nitin is on a mission to help businesses drive Digital Transformation using the power of the internet leveraging his 2 decades in the tech industry working with leaders like Oracle, IBM, Intel and Verisign.
In his previous avatar as Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific he grew the region for Verisign exponentially, engaging ecosystem players which included telecom carriers, e/m-commerce companies, thought leaders, digital media, PR, industry associations & governments to pilot out services, build new revenue streams and chart out a sustainable strategic road map for growth while helping bridge the divide between offline and online commerce.
His last role was as the VP for APAC & EMEA regions for an AI enabled SaaS start up enabling customer acquisition, engagement and monetization for ecommerce clients.
In his spare time, Nitin advises start-ups, helping them fine tune their GTM. He is a mentor at IvyCamp ( www.ivycamp.in), an IvyCap Ventures platform & a mentor at the Atal Innovation Mission (www.aim.gov.in , under NITI Aayog, Govt of India) helping foster innovation in schools and colleges.
Entrepreneurial & passionate in spirit, he is extremely keen to talk to anyone with a good business idea and is presently spending time on penning his thoughts on the secret sauce for fostering a culture of innovation & trust in organizations.

Dr. J. S. Juneja

Dr. Juneja has been the former Chairman and CEO of the National Small Industries Corporation. Dr. Juneja has a unique experience in the public & private sector managements and has worked for SME development, policy formulation & advocacy, institutional capacity building & restructuring and entrepreneurship development for over three decades.
Promoting investments and joint ventures from India to Mauritius and Botswana, Dr. Juneja has served as a Advisor & Consultant to the Governments of Egypt, UAE (Dubai), Kenya, Sri Lanka and several other countries of Asia & Africa, United Nations organizations, Commonwealth Secretariat etc.
He has also served as the Past President of All India Management Association.
An MBA from the University of Oregon, USA, Dr. Juneja was conferred Doctoral Degree by the University of Bombay in Applied Economics (1989). He has been a Visiting Professor to the University of Rhode Island, USA and Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
Dr. J.S Juneja has been actively promoting investments to a number of countries particularly in Africa, while facilitating FDIs, joint ventures and technology transfer and has assisted in setting up more than 300 small manufacturing enterprises in Asia and Africa.
Dr Juneja has written extensively and recently authored ‘SMEs in Asian Region- Harnessing the Growth Potential’ and ‘Policy Guidebook for SME Development in Asia and the Pacific’ edited and published by United Nation ESCAP.

Mr Sunil Alagh

Sunil Alagh is the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Britannia Industries, an Indian food products corporation.
Alagh is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He joined Britannia in December 1974 from Jagatjit Industries, where he was
product manager (marketing services). He is credited with Britannia's rise to being India's largest biscuit company.
It was under his stewardship that Britannia became the No. 1 Food Brand in India in 2002 and figured in the Forbes Magazine
List of 300 Best Small Companies in the World for three years- 1999, 2000 and 2002. It was the only food brand from India
on the list. His work spans a period of 40 years, across three countries (Malaysia, India and Indonesia) and four industries
– FMCG, private equity, pharma and corporate security.
A recognised thought provocateur, Sunil Alagh, enables teams to realise their full potential and run successful businesses.
Building brands and sustaining a profitable business is now second nature to him. After his successful stint at Britannia
Industries, Sunil Alagh began to lead a small and effective team at SKA Advisors in 2003. His work now, is centered around
creating strategic business and marketing plans for Challenger Brands operating in competitive environments. In 2010, Sunil
Alagh oversaw the successful execution of the development of Horlicks as a Challenger Brand in biscuits. For someone who had
launched Britannia Tiger and contemporarised the Britannia brand, it was a sense of deja vu.
Apart from his work at SKA Advisors, Sunil Alagh is involved with several private and public firms in various capacities. He
was also appointed as the President of the All India Management Association (AIMA) in 2004.

Mr Vinod Kumar

Starting his career in international collaborations and projects, in 1989, saw Vinod at the nerve centre of various successful Joint Ventures and Colllaborations in Electronics & Telecom, Media & Publishing, Industrial & Consumer Electronics, Hospitality and Finance, with Multinational corporations entering India through the FDI route.
In his corporate honcho avataar, Vinod, continued to helm important and visionary new ventures and projects including the first email service in India and went on to launch Microsoft first exclusive distribution in India, followed by SUN & IBM certified IT Training with a network of over 140 centres across India, training over 1,25,000 engineers in IT in the next four years.
Vinod, led a Big 4, IT Consulting organisation in India, setting up its wholly owned subsidiary in the US, after securing venture alliances with Baan, Lotus IBM, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the XML World Group and executed multi million contracts for Texaco, DST Systems and other large corporations throughout the world, before overseeing the buyout of the company by a US based corporation, in an all cash deal. Vinod went to lead the development & successful sale of an indigenously developed navigation and geographic information system, based tracking patent and business.
As the Managing Partner for India and Middle East at Sustainable Development Resources Consortium International, he presently invests in profitable, innovative, Small and Medium Companies. Vinod leads the SDRC team in Risk Profiling, Assessing Growth Potential and deciding on Investment for Seed and Venture Financing to MSMEs in innovative and disruptive technologies, apart from day to day overseeing and leading extensive research and analysis of linkages, growth potential and market factors of SMEs involved in over 29 clusters across 11 Sectors including Food Processing, Dairy, Leather, Pharma, Engineering and Automotive in over 19 states of India.
As an investor and mentor, with a passion for growing innovative and disruptive brick and mortar, Small and Medium companies with a high growth trajectory, Vinod, supervises and mentors investments of over 135 m $ apart from mentoring over a thousand Entreprenuers, across various sectors under the India SME Forum's Mentor 4 Entrepreneur Program. Vinod's experience in startups, seed, equity & development financing and capacity building of MSMEs has successfully lead to innovative strategies in equity & growth capital investments in SMEs apart from the development of successful strategies for a nationwide Capacity Building Framework at the India SME Forum.
Vinod passionately addresses and conducts workshops, motivational seminars and leadership sessions for Small and Medium Entrepreneurs and currently serves as the Honorary President at the India SME Forum, apart from advising various government agencies and institutions to strategize and deal with current issues and future challenges.
Vinod is member of the Board of World Union of SMEs headquartered in San Merino, nominated as a Member of India's Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India's Standing Advisory Committee on Flow of Institutional Credit to MSME Sector under the Financial Inclusion Development Department and is also a nominated member on the High Powered Monitoring Committee under National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Hub under StandUp India of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of the Government of India.
Vinod has a Graduate Engineering Degree in Electronics and Telecommunication & a Masters in Business Administration.